. Eddy by her hospitable courtesy, I
went to her peculiarly fatigued. I came away in a state of exhilaration and
energy that made me feel I could have walked any conceivable distance. I
have met Mrs. Eddy many times since then, and always with this experience
repeated.

Several years ago Mrs. Eddy removed from Columbus to Commonwealth Avenue,
where, just beyond Massachusetts Avenue, at the entrance to the Back Bay
Park, she bought one of the most beautiful residences in Boston. The
interior is one of the utmost taste and luxury, and the house is now
occupied by Judge and Mrs. Hanna, who are the editors of _The Christian
Science Journal_, a monthly publication, and to whose courtesy I am much
indebted for some of the data of this paper. "It is a pleasure to give any
information for _The Inter-Ocean_," remarked Mrs. Hanna, "for it is the
great daily that is so fair and so just in its attitude toward all
questions."

The increasing demands of the public on Mrs. Eddy have been, it may be, one
factor in her removal to Concord, N.H., where she has a beautiful
residence, called Pleasant View. Her health is excellent, and although her
hair is white, she retains in a great degree her energy and power; she
takes a daily walk and drives in the afternoon. She personally attends to a
vast correspondence; superintends the church in Boston, and is engaged on
further writings on Christian Science. In every sense she is the recognized
head of the Christian Science Church. At the same time it is her most
earnest aim to eliminate the element of personality from the faith. "On
this point, Mrs. Eddy feels very strongly," said a gentleman to me on
Christmas eve, as I sat in the beautiful drawing-room, where Judge and Mrs.
Hanna, Miss Elsie Lincoln, the soprano for the choir of the new church, and
one or two other friends were gathered.

"Mother feels very strongly," he continued, "the danger and the misfortune
of a church depending on any one personality. It is difficult not to centre
too closely around a highly gifted personality."

THE FIRST ASSOCIATION

The first Christian Scientist Association was organized on July 4, 1876, by
seven persons, including Mrs. Eddy. In April, 1879, the church was founded
with twenty-six members, and its charter obtained the following June.[C]
Mrs. Eddy had preached in other parishes for five years before being
ordained in this church, which ceremony took place in 1881.

The first edition of Mrs. Eddy